


morph (or, what happens next)

by helloshepard



Series: what we owe to each other [1]
Category: Marvel, Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Missing Scene, Other, Post-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-09
Packaged: 2019-07-27 08:39:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16215452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helloshepard/pseuds/helloshepard
Summary: Venom finds Eddie. Life goes on.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so I really loved this movie a lot more than I thought. Not sure how many chapters this'll be. Hoping to see the movie again soon, so I'll have a better grasp of the characters. Feedback is greatly appreciated!

He is half-asleep, slowly sliding into blissful unawareness when it happens.

It slides across his skin slowly, starting at his fingertips and into his palm. The sensation is feather-light, a tentative touch against sensitive skin.

Eddie rolls over. The couch is small, too narrow for his broad shoulders. Blearily, he opens his eyes. The apartment is never completely dark, but he cannot see the source of the sensation. Instead he feels it, gently climbing up his forearm and through his shoulder.

****Eddie.** **

He resists the urge to jump, to scream, settles instead for biting his lip until it bleeds.

Venom peels himself off of Eddie’s skin. Takes a minute to survey him, wide white eyes gleaming in the dim light. He is all Eddie remembered, and somehow…he is even more.

“You were--I thought you were--”

The symbiote bumps his head against Eddie’s hand, and his mind slots in the word __nuzzling.__ In the normalcy of the apartment, it sinks in that perhaps he should be more bothered. When they first met, an alien life form playing house inside his body was __not__ the strangest thing going on. No…Eddie isn’t sure what he’s supposed to be feeling.

He settles for __relieved.__

****it burned. i was tired. Weak. took a long time to find you again.** **

Hazy images filter through Eddie’s mind as he sees through Venom’s eyes. The shuffling steps of a bag man, a bus driver. A girl looking at her phone. __Edward Brock.__ Last known address. A call center. Then a delivery driver, just outside his building.

Eddie can’t hold back a smile. Venom stops the nuzzling, looks up at him.

“And now? You’re okay?”

****hungry.** **

Venom does look smaller than usual, more… _ _liquid__ than Eddie remembers. The head dissolves, rests in Eddie’s hands, a puddle of black goo.

“I don’t think I have much.” Eddie tries to remember if there’s __anything__ to eat in the entire apartment. The tater tots are gone, there’s stale kettle corn, a slowly molding apple, half a bar of Hershey’s.

****chocolate.** **

The thought is so sudden, so __sure,__ Eddie stares down at the symbiote.

 ** **hungry,**** it repeats.

“Sure.” Eddie slides off the couch. “I guess it’s too much to ask to stay out of my mind.”

 ** **i can’t read your mind.**** Venom unfurls itself from Eddie’s hand and slides up to rest on his shoulder. ****I see images. feelings.****

“Sure sounds like mind reading to me.”

Venom sighs in his mind, a deep, tired, hiss.

“Or not. I guess. Totally different.” Eddie peels the wrapper back, offers it to Venom.

There is no hesitation. Its mouth, the wide, toothy grin, opens even wider than Eddie thought possible, snaps closed around the food.

And around his hand.

His teeth are sharp. So sharp Eddie doesn’t feel the pain until Venom pulls back and the half-devoured candy bar falls to the floor, covered in blood and saliva. The back of Eddie’s mind burns, __itches,__ as he realizes the symbiote realizes the mistake.

Eddie swears, stumbles to the sink. The water runs red, does nothing to help the pain.

Venom slides off his shoulder and curls around his forearm. His wet, hot, tongue snakes across Eddie’s hand, licking away blood. Unthinking, Eddie shakes it off. Venom slides off his wrist, into the sink, down the drain.

For a moment, Eddie can only stare.

He swears, profusely, takes a moment to punch the refrigerator with his good hand. Then he goes back to the sink. Belatedly, he realizes his hand has stopped bleeding.

**_**_eddie?_ ** _ **

Slowly, so, so slowly, Venom crawls out of the drain. Eddie holds out his hand, but Venom hesitates.

It’s only when Eddie holds out the remains of the chocolate that Venom slinks up Eddie’s wrist.

****i’m sorry eddie. i’m tired. hungry. eddie.** **

“It’s fine.” With one finger, Eddie strokes the symbiote’s head. Venom leans into the touch and sighs again. Curls around his wrist, a many-fingered hand clinging to him for support.

****t** ** ****ired, eddie.** **

“I know. I know.”

With that, it slides into his skin effortlessly, settles in the pit of his stomach. It’s not an unwelcome weight. And Eddie absorbs the exhaustion just as easily, sinking down to the floor.

****rest please, eddie.** **

“Yeah. Rest.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

Eddie comes to on the floor. His watch says it’s barely two-thirty in the morning. Venom is still in his chest, curled up in a tight ball.

“Venom?”

 ** **Hungry.**** Venom is sleepy, and the thought drifts through their minds before fading away into the oppressive silence.

“Okay.” Eddie stands and stretches, feeling stiff muscle protest at the unwelcome movement. “Food.”

Mrs. Chen’s is closed, but Young’s is not. It’s a little further, and the streets are dark, illuminated only by the occasional dim streetlamp.

Venom is still and unthinking as Eddie walks, consciousness only coming into the front of Eddie’s mind when they pass someone on the street. Eddie’s not ready to concede the point of _people-eating_. Not yet, at least.

Young’s smells like fish. It’s part fish market, part convenience store, and Venom stirs as they enter the store. Eddie gets a tired look from behind the counter. He ducks behind a shelf and picks up a basket.

“What do you want?”

Venom makes a vague, uncertain gesture with Eddie’s body.

So Eddie checks his wallet. Thirty bucks. He scans the shelves, starts pulling products into the basket. Besides the brains of a thug, the only things Venom’s had with him are some frozen tater tots and a rotten chicken.

“In the lab.” Eddie says. “What did you eat?”

Venom shrugs with Eddie’s shoulders.

****Disgusting, soft food. Wet. They pushed it into our body with no** ** **_**_teeth_ ** _ ** ****. Ridiculous.** **

Eddie hesitates at the jars of breakfast spreads. Peanut butter, jelly, Nutella, marmalade. He picks the Nutella--if Eddie likes it, it’ll taste good to Venom, right?

****Not necessarily.** **

Eddie sighs. The lack of sleep burns at his eyes, making them prickly and dry. He stops at the refrigerated section and throws in another bag of tater tots and after a moment of hesitation, a frozen chicken.

The clerk just rings up the purchases, hands him the change, and waves Eddie off. Venom slides down to the bag and examines the food. Unsurprisingly he’s focused on the chicken, so Eddie reaches out to unwrap it, ignoring Venom’s protest as the cold hits his fingers.

“Here.” Venom is licking his lips. He dives into the box, thin body curling around the carcass. Eddie can feel him growing stronger as it consumes the meat and bones without discrimination. Before they’ve gone a block, Venom is done. Eddie opens up the jar of Nutella. He’s unwilling to chance Venom not liking it and spilling the chocolate spread all over the bag, so he holds it out.

“Try it.”

Venom emerges from his hand and gives the chocolate stuff a lick. While the chicken had just been __good,__ this was _delicious _,__ and Eddie finds himself experiencing the new and slightly uncomfortable sensation of secondhand satisfaction from eating _ _.__ Venom curls around Eddie’s wrist and sticks his head into the jar. Thankfully it’s dark enough that spotting Venom is impossible if you don’t know what you’re looking for, so Eddie just looks like a man shuffling down the street, carrying a jar of Nutella.

When half the jar is gone, Venom stops. He licks his lips, retreats into Eddie’s sleeve and shoots up his arm, coming to rest on Eddie’s shoulders. Eddie screws the lid back into place and returns the jar to the bag.

 ** **Thank you!**** Venom sounds like he’s back to normal, which is more of a relief than Eddie thought it might be.

“Still hungry?”

 ** **Yes.**** Eddie reaches down for the jar, but Venom indicates he’s done by stopping the movement midair. Eddie thinks maybe Venom is __always_ hungry._

“Tired?”

****Yes?** **

“You don’t sound sure.” They round the corner. Eddie’s building is on the right.

****I am…not used to being asked.** **

“Guess your buddies weren’t big on conversation.”

Venom circles Eddie’s shoulders while he thinks,following patterns of foreign muscle and bone, a sensation too comforting to be an itch.

****With them it is different. There is no need to convey information. It is just** ** **_**there** **_._ ** _ **

Eddie thinks back to the fight on the ramp, to Riot digging into their minds as effortlessly as he had consumed their body. Thinks of Venom, screaming in his head as he worked to pull them both out.

And then remembers the feeling of a blade shooting through his body. Remembers the cold metal rushing up to meet his face.

He realizes Venom has stopped moving and seems to be waiting for a response.

“I never thanked you for that.”

Venom doesn’t ask what. Doesn’t need to, because despite his protests, Venom can _read his mind_ , and Eddie isn’t sure how he feels about that.

****Why would you need to?** **

“It’s what friends do.”

****Friends?** **

“Yeah, friends. Do they have friends on Kilntar?”

 ** **Klyntar. No.**** Venom moves down Eddie’s body, tracing a path along the veins in his hands. It’s a strange sensation, and Eddie finds himself staring at his hands, as if he expects to see a stranger’s hands on his own. ****Not as you understand them. Are we ‘friends’, eddie?****

“Sure.” It comes out too easily, as if this is the most normal thing in the world. “Why not?”

Eddie feels Venom hesitate, just under the recently-healed skin of his hand. Stretches out his fingers. Apparently reassured, Venom moves again, sliding past the nonexistent scar, back up to his chest.

“Look, it’s no big deal. You were tired.”

Venom stops, and for a moment Eddie fears he’s pissed the symbiote off.

****Thank you, Eddie.** **

And slides away from his shoulders, back to the pit of his stomach.

Venom doesn’t stir again until Eddie is back home. Black goo slides out from Eddie’s collar and onto the couch, pooling into the shape of Venom’s head. It bumps Eddie’s hands until he gives in and runs a finger down the length of its skull.

“So.” Eddie says. “Are you sticking around?”

Venom doesn’t answer immediately. Instead he licks Eddie’s hand and Eddie feels _warm _.__ Thinks of being held, the warmth of an _other half,_ a perfect opposite, in the cold night. It’s safe here. _Home _.__

“I guess that’s a yes.”

Venom rumbles a vague affirmative.

****Not if you don’t want** ** ****us** _**_._ ** _ **

Eddie isn’t sure which ‘us’ Venom is referring to. Regardless, he feels queasy, as though he has just stepped back from the edge of a cliff. Is this Venom’s reaction? His own?

“I, uh. I don’t know, honestly.”

 ** **This is not going to work if we are not…**** Venom tilts his head. ****In agreement.****

“What’ll happen to me if we don’t…what? Agree? Write up a contract?”

Venom sighs in Eddie’s ear.

****Nothing. Your body will adapt quickly to the change. I must leave to find another host.** **

“Oh. Okay. So. What do we do?”

Venom growls. Eddie’s stomach clenches. He feels sick, as if he has eaten too much, too soon.

 ** **How dense are you?**** Venom prods Eddie’s head.

“Shut up.”

Venom hisses. A head forms, and fangs graze Eddie’s collar. It’s a chiding gesture, Eddie’s brain knows, but __it shouldn’t feel that good.__

 ** **Figure it out.**** Venom pauses. ****Want me to leave?****

“Yes. No.” Eddie sighs. “I think I need you out of my head while I decide. I’m not telling you to leave. I just need my head to myself right now, you know?”

 ** **No.**** But Venom acquiesces, slithers away from Eddie. Before he can speak, it is gone.

* * *

 

Eddie doesn’t sleep, doesn’t notice the passage of time. Venom is curled up inside the shower, so Eddie leaves him be.

The sun rises.  

The paper doesn’t call back, but his former boss sounded more than a little hopeful the last time they spoke. Against his better judgement, Eddie is thinking again. Seeing leads, ideas everywhere. He has another chance. The FBI had called him yesterday. Network or no, he’s got a story to tell, starting tomorrow afternoon. There’s so much to research before then, but Eddie has time.

 _Thanks to Venom,_ the traitorous, unhelpful part of his mind ads. _Without him…_

“Without him, I would’ve got the story either way. Probably caused less trouble too.”

Great. Now he’s talking to himself.

He hears the fridge open. Venom’s probably raiding its meager contents, expecting Eddie will show him the door in a minute.

His phone vibrates. _Anne _.__

“Hey. Venom?”

He’s back before Eddie can turn to look, slithering across the table and into Eddie’s hand. Eddie sighs at the rightness of it, of Venom’s warm presence in his chest.

“Come on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. I am in the process of writing more fic, including a theoretical sequel, but it's possible the only thing coming from me will be one-shots for a bit.


End file.
